The Benefits Of Online Payment Processing For Law Firms [INFOGRAPHIC]

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Today’s legal consumers have different expectations than they did even five years ago. Your clients are used to conducting business and obtaining the information that they need online, whether it’s with their bank, their doctor, or you, their lawyer.

For example, one thing that 21st consumers do on a regular basis is pay their bills online. Doing so saves them time and money. There’s no need to pay for envelopes and stamps or waste time writing out a check; instead they can instantly pay their bills with a click of a button.

Because it’s so easy to pay bills online, it’s no surprise that the number of dollars collected via online payments has increased dramatically in recent years. For example, in 2011, only $1 out of every $17 was collected online whereas in 2014, $1 out of every $6 was collected via online payments.

So, it makes sense that payments made by mail are predicted to drop from 21% to 15% in 2016, while online and mobile bill payments will be on the uptick, with 55% of U.S. consumers predicted to pay bills online in 2016.

Legal consumers’ payment choices are in line with this trend. As evidence, consider the fact that in 2014, online court payments in Pennsylvania increased by 23% in just one year and $77 million was collected via online payment processing in 2014 alone.

The good news for solo and small firm lawyers who accept online payments via credit card or ACH (eCheck) is that doing so increases client satisfaction (46% of consumers who receive ebills report increased satisfaction) and allows your law firm to compete with the whopping 62% of large and mid-sized firms that are already offering these options to their clients.

Does your law firm offer online payments options to your clients? If not, maybe it’s time to start! If you’re not convinced, take a look at the infographic below for more compelling reasons to expand your law firm’s payments options in 2016.

(As always, we encourage you to share and blog about our infographics and slideshows. You can grab an embed of this slideshow from Slideshare here).

Nicole Black is an attorney and the Legal Technology Evangelist at MyCase. Her legal career spans nearly two decades and she has extensive litigation experience. She was named an inaugural ABA Legal Rebel in 2009 and an inaugural Fastcase 50 in 2011. She is also a well known legal technology author, journalist, and speaker. She wrote "Computing for Lawyers" (2012) and co-authored "Social Media: The Next Frontier" (2010), both published by the American Bar Association. She also co-authors "Criminal Law in New York," a Thomson West treatise. She often speaks at conferences about the intersection of law, mobile computing and Internet-based technology. She can be reached at niki@mycase.com.